1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a combination blood cell count/immunoassay apparatus capable of operating with whole whole blood to provide multiple measurements in an efficient manner.
2. Description of Related Art
It has been known to use an inflammation marker as a technique for observing any sign of inflammation occurring in a human body, including its degree and its progress. For a typical inflammation marker, examples include a count of the number of white blood cells, erythrocyte sedimentation rate, acute phase protein, serum protein fractional value, serum sialic acid, etc., and these are measured in various combinations and the results are utilized for diagnosis of inflammation. Of these examples, particularly, the measurement of the number of white blood cells and C-reactive protein (CRP), acute phase protein, is effective for diagnosis of inflammation and infectious diseases, but there is no known apparatus which can measure both simultaneously, and the former is usually measured by a blood cell counter and the latter by an immunoassay apparatus, respectively.
However, when measurements are carried out individually using the blood cell counter and the immunoassay apparatus, the samples used for measurements are the whole blood for the former and primarily blood serum for the latter. When the whole blood is obtained as a sample, the blood must be both drawn with an anticoagulant and without an anticoagulant, respectively, while the serum needs time to wait for blood coagulation and centrifuge, accordingly, the above technique is not suited for those medical facilities where a professional laboratory engineer or technician is unable to be constantly in attendance, such as small doctor's offices and clinics, clinics in remote areas, holiday clinics, emergency laboratory, etc.
There is also known an immunoassay apparatus which can carry out a measurement with whole blood, but when the whole blood is used for samples, if the targeted immunoassay item does not exist in the blood cell and only exists in serum or plasma, and errors arising from variations in hematocrit, which has comparatively large individual differences, are generated.
Thus, the prior art is still seeking to provide an improved blood cell count and immunoassay apparatus.